The invention relates generally to systems and methods for identifying and correlating multiple video content identifiers associated with specific video content. Additionally, the described systems and methods aggregate metadata associated with specific video content from one or more metadata sources.
Specific video content in a video repository may have an associated identifier that uniquely refers to this video. Such an identifier is usually referred to as a globally unique identifier (GUID). Examples of video repositories in this context include a video hosting and distribution website such as NetFlix, YouTube, or Hulu, a collection of DVD media, a collection of media files, or a peer-to-peer network.
Typically, GUIDs are specific for each video repository. For example, videos in YouTube have an associated uniform resource locator (URL) that is unique to that online video source. Similarly, files in the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network have a hash value computed from its content and used as an identifier of the file. A DVD can be uniquely identified by a hash value produced from the media files recorded on the disc (commonly referred to as the DVDid).
In addition to repositories of video content, there exists multiple repositories of video-related information (also referred to as video-related metadata). A few examples include: Wikipedia, containing detailed descriptions of movie plots and characters; International Movie Database (IMDB), containing lists of actors performing in movies; OpenSubtitles, containing subtitles in different languages; DVDXML database containing information about DVDs, etc.
Many of these metadata repositories are available and indexed using different types of identifiers. For example, DVD-related information (e.g., cover art, list of chapters, title, etc.) can be retrieved using a DVDid. Subtitles in OpenSubtitles database are indexed by moviehash, an identifier used in the BitTorrent network. Other information sources also use a hash value associated with a movie or other video program as an index to video-related information. For certain online information services, a URL is used as an index for video-related information.
Although there are multiple ways to identify different types of video content, these identifiers are not interchangeable. Metadata repositories use some types of identifiers to access the data specific for the typical content source (e.g., subtitles are associated with moviehash, DVD information with DVDid, etc.). However, identifier for one information source will not typically work to identify video content available from another information source.
Throughout the description, similar reference numbers may be used to identify similar elements.